Done for the Week: Narrowing My Sights

I have reached the part of this summer that will involve focusing intensely on preparing for the triathlon in less than three weeks.  My training partner and I spent all day yesterday traveling to, participating in, and returning from the Danskin Triathlon Prep Camp held at the location of the upcoming race.  Tomorrow we will begin the Open Water Swim class, which will have us traveling to and training in the Lake we will be swimming across.  It is time to take my bike in for its pre-race tuneup, and to finalize additional equipment and technique tweaks.  The training schedule for the next three weeks will be hectic.  And it is time to start working on my nerves.


Even though this is my second tri, and I am no longer considered a newbie, I still approach the event with a bit of trepidation; although I have to say that getting into the lake yesterday was much less intimidating than it was last year at this time.  But, at least for me, an undertaking of this magnitude requires the kind of organization, persistence, faith, self-discipline, and FOCUS that do not come naturally to me.  Which is why this sport has been so good for me.  And so challenging.


To further complicate things this year, August brings me new staff to deal with at one job; my grandson's birthday (which I am struggling to remember is in 3 days!); a new web client, with his September launch date; a major website overhaul for another client, due at the end of the month; my continuing efforts to keep this blog up and running; support needed to get one son ready for college, and another to finish high school; and the rush to complete the long list of summer projects we came up with, what seems a few short weeks ago.  Oh, and then there's the recall election that Wisconsin believes the world is watching.  Eight crazy days, and lots of volunteer hours to go.


I am still managing to put one foot in front of the other, and still searching for equanimity.


Done for the Week:  July 25-31, 2011

1. Completed Week 12 of 15-week triathlon training program; ran three times; swam three times; biked three times
2. Worked out several times with my training partner
3. Attended Triathlon Prep Camp
4. Ordered & received new triathlon shorts; found old ones
5. Got new contacts, and began wearing them 
6. Finished If Sons, Then Heirs, by Lorene Cary
7. Continued to work my two part-time jobs 
8. Published 1 blog post 
9. Shared Happy Hour dinner with my husband
10. Continued reading Elizabeth George's In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner aloud with my husband
11. Took my dog to dog wash/coffee bar, with my husband
12. Set up lunch meeting with new web client
13. Met with current web client; worked on project
14. Participated in driving my not-quite-licensed-to-drive son to and from work
15. Took last child to driver's license road test in the rain (He passed!)
16. Worked for recall candidate
17. Worked at two Get Out the Vote events, in the blazing heat of mid-day
18. Attended stepson's fiance's graduate school graduation party
19. Celebrated my husband's birthday
20. Visited "Summer of China" Forbidden City exhibit at Art Museum
21. Bought "new" sofa and sofa table at consignment shop
22. Picked up sofa and sofa table, and moved out old sofa
23. Made significant progress in cleaning/straightening/decluttering living room, family room & kitchen  
24. Did laundry

Last week's most important accomplishment was all the effort I put into getting ready for the triathlon.   And in the process, I determined that my approach to training and preparations for this much-anticipated event has been neglecting its importance.  I have been trying to wedge this significant campaign into an already crazy-making agenda, and experiencing the necessary activity as more of a nuisance than the joy it was last year.  

Some of what has been missing is training with my daughter, which gave us some time and a shared interest outside of family.  She is four months pregnant, and not a triathlon candidate this season.  But I am enjoying training with a friend, and supporting her first effort.

The real culprit is the rest of my jam-packed life.  I haven't yet figured out what to do about that, though I have certainly spent a lot of time contemplating solutions, and writing about that contemplation.  But I have decided to enter more fully into the experience of triathlon, which is not just about race day.  I am going to try to give it the attention and the energy it deserves, and to relish its gifts and take in its lessons.  That is next week's focus goal.

Last week's focus goal, creating a realistic schedule that reflects my many current commitments, got short shrift, I'm afraid.   Given the crunch-time nature of these last weeks of summer, it was probably unrealistic to have expected otherwise.  As I said last week, "When I can be more strategic about my use of time, it should be easier to defend against additional incursions of responsibility (by using that two-letter word I have so much trouble with), and to prioritize projects in a way that will allow me to feel that I'm making progress."  Emphasis on when.  That time is not now.  

Later, for the realistic schedule.

Done for the Week: Getting Into Getting Out of Stuff

For the first time since I started this Done for the Week feature, I am a day late (if not a dollar short) in posting it.  I may have some fine-tuning to do on this whole laying back thing.

I am still, however, getting some things finished, of the many that matter to me.

Done for the Week:  June 20-26, 2011

1. Completed Week 7 of 15-week triathlon training program; ran twice; biked twice; swam twice
2. Swam once, ran once with my training partner 
3. Got my son to the gym with me once
4. Finished Motherless Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethem
5. Attended 2 yoga classes
6. Participated in final interviews for organizer position 
7. Participated in hiring decision
8. Continued to work my two part-time jobs 
9. Planted orphaned begonia
10. Put in backyard sandbox
11. Cut back summer blogging schedule
12. Stepped further back from organizational overcommitment
13. Blew off a couple of meetings 
14. Published 4 blog posts 
15. Meditated 2 times
    
16. Had lunch date with my husband
17. Went to Happy Hour with my husband
18. Watched two episodes of Treme with my husband
19. Took care of my out-of-town daughter's dog and house, days 3 through 9 of 11
20. Got various family members, including our dog, to walk temporary foster dog with me
21. Met again with major new website client
22. Went out driving with learning teenager several times 
23. Participated in driving my not-quite-licensed-to-drive son to his job
24. Volunteered with recall campaign
25. Continued spending time on, and making progress with, yard recovery project
26. Spent time outside in my swing, reading and relaxing
27. Continued supporting my 20-year-old in his return to the academic environment
28. Made progress in cleaning/straightening/decluttering work room, bedroom & kitchen

Last week's most important accomplishment, in the opinion of this overworked and under rested blogger, was the jettisoning of some items that have been clogging my agenda of late--this was by way of embracing summer, and its legendary opportunities to sit quietly on the planet and revel in its glories.  Now if I can just keep myself from indulging my busy-ness tic and signing up for replacement obligations, I may begin to recover some much-needed energy.

My focus goal for last week was to begin to declutter our house, and to involve my housemates in the excavation.  The plan was to start with the kitchen, my work room, and our bedroom.  As you can see, in green above, I did make some progress on this goal.  But I am almost always (my family would say always) too ambitious.  Our nest has been neglected for too long, and by too many of us, to be rewoven in a week.  Or two.  Or three.  So I am extending this focus goal at least into next week.  After I have unearthed a modicum of surface space, I intend to fight the impulse to move on, until the hordes of stuff have retreated significantly.

Taking Time for Summer

One take on chronic procrastination might be to redefine our to-do lists to reflect what we're actually likely to do.

Along those lines, I have observed in recent weeks that I am more likely to publish 3 or 4 blog posts per week, than I am to achieve my self-established standard of Monday through Friday, 5 posts a week blogging.

I have therefore decided to relax my blogging rule for the summer, and to aim for 3 to 4 posts each week.  This reflects more sensibly the time I have to give, what with two recall elections, one triathlon, and work for a major new web client vying for my energies.  It answers my "heart's desire" for a more leisurely pace than the one I've been keeping.  And it will instantly improve my rate of success, and transfuse my flagging self-esteem.

I may be, as some have suggested, a bit of a troglodyte.  But I savor memories of summertimes past, when life slowed, routines fell away, and there was time to read, to garden, and to play.  I am lucky enough to live in a house filled with books, with two well-stocked libraries nearby, just in case.  God knows my "garden," in a state of utter neglect, needs me.  And one of my favorite people in the world is three years old, and treasures his "long-Nana-days."

I trust the world will survive with one or two less bulletins a week from me, for the next couple of months.